Hughes takes first GP3 win of 2018 after Turn 1 clash
ART Grand Prix driver Jake Hughes resisted race-long pressure from Trident’s Pedro Piquet to claim his first victory of the 2018 GP3 season at the Red Bull Ring.
The Briton took advantage of a dramatic first corner collision between the top three drivers on the starting grid to jump into lead from the second row, before coming out on top in a tense battle with Piquet to record his third win in the series and first since 2016.
ART Grand Prix driver Jake Hughes resisted race-long pressure from Trident’s Pedro Piquet to claim his first victory of the 2018 GP3 season at the Red Bull Ring.
The Briton took advantage of a dramatic first corner collision between the top three drivers on the starting grid to jump into lead from the second row, before coming out on top in a tense battle with Piquet to record his third win in the series and first since 2016.
Piquet briefly held the lead after passing Hughes, but ultimately had to settle for his second podium of the season after the ART driver fought back a few laps later. Leonardo Pulcini made it back-to-back podiums in Austria, completing the rostrum in third.
Second-place man Ryan Tveter made the best start of all to get the jump on polesitter David Beckmann and snatch the lead, but the pair touched under braking at Turn 1, with Tveter’s Trident pitched into Beckmann and Giuliano Alesi, taking all three drivers off and out of the race.
That incident enabled Hughes to assume first place, a position the Briton held until Lap 9, when Pedro Piquet dived down his inside on the run to Turn 4. But the Brazilian’s spell at the front was short-lived, as Hughes reclaimed the lead at the same corner just two laps later before holding station out front.
Alessio Lorandi pulled off a pair of overtakes on the final lap to take fourth, ahead of MP Motorsport’s Dorian Boccolacci and new championship leader Callum Ilott, who further extended his points lead at the top of the drivers’ standings following on from his second win of the season in the opening race on Saturday.
ART teammate Nikita Mazepin was seventh, while Niko Kari held off Anthoine Hubert by just 0.5s to claim the final point on offer in eighth, with the latter enduring a point-less weekend to forget that saw him relinquish his championship lead.
